The old saying is the two things you cannot avoid are death and taxes but these days it seems politics are much more entwined with death and to me that is a sad thing. Certainly the death of a political incumbent has political aspects, especially where the district is marginal and thus subject to takeover. But you do not discuss such things while the body is still warm.
Although most of the mainstream on both the left and the right have been properly respectful regarding the death of Congressman Murtha (D-PA) that has not been the case for everyone. No sooner had the story broken that some of the fringes on the right began posting comments that ranged from thinly muted celebration to openly disgusting attacks on the man.
These comments, which I find completely wrong, have prompted responses on the hard left sites which not only condemn the comments but try to paint them as typical of everyone on the right. Obviously this is not true but what is even more hypocritical is the fact that these same sites have had equally improper responses to the death of conservative figures like Robert Novak. So it’s a bit of the pot calling the kettle black.
A side note here, I won’t be posting links to any of these comments, either from the left or the right, because I don’t think them worthy of reading. But in both cases they are easy enough to find (a sad fact).
So to the degree that anyone from these sites manages to read my commentary let me make it clear. If someone dies and you don’t like them, then shut up about it. You don’t have to wail or cry about it but you don’t need to trash the dead.